Simpleton iPhone user, please help!

Question

Please accept my apologies in advance for my technophobia and simpleness with regard to my following statements!
I have owned an iPhone 4 for approx 3 yrs, taken pics, vids etc., I also have wotsapp on this phone, which I also receive pics to! (Although, I am very limited in my knowledge of the iPhone, I prefer it to the Blackberry)! I have found that almost every time there is an update I have to delete pics and vids, just to be able to get the updates. I understand I didn't have enough memory, so a while ago I opened an icloud account, thinking my pics would be stored there, to be retrieved at my leisure on my pc! Having read a few other peoples Q & A on this forum, I now believe that I am unable to see or retrieve them again?!! Is this correct or am I being super simple? I have the flowery looking pic (on phone home screen) that has yrs as headers and pics underneath, I've actually had to delete some of these today to be able to get new upgrade and think I have completely lost them now!!
Today I have gone onto contract and upgraded to 5c, I have been told to back up all my info from iPhone 4 (before transfer of original mob no. and contacts should be attempted to transfer to 5c). I went into the icloud app that (hopefully) has backed up my contacts!! But, am I correct in assuming I will be unable to retrieve any pics or vids I may attempt to store, or have stored previously
I see there is the option to share, but I don't neccesarily want to share, I just want access to them for myself and family?!
Please accept my apologies for this long-winded comment, but, I really am clueless!!  I'm not even sure I am going to be able to find this thread again to read your responses!
I would really appreciate any positive comments and advice you can give me.
Thanks

Answer 1

If you want your contacts and other data to be saved in iCloud, go to Settings>iCloud on your iPhone 4 and turn contacts, calendars, etc. to On.  Then check icloud.com to be sure that they are there.  These will then appear on your new phone when you sign into your iCloud account.  As far as your pictures, your backup will save any photos and videos currently in your camera roll.  Restoring this backup to your new phone will transfer them, along with your app data, text messages, settings, apps and other purchased media, to you new phone.
If you have any photo stream photos that are not in your camera roll, save them to the camera roll before backing up your old phone so then will be transferred too.
Photo stream photos only remain in iCloud for 30 days, giving your other devices enough time to download them.   Since they are only in iCloud for 30 days, you can't use this to back up your photos.  You also can't use your device backup to save your photos.  The problem with trying to do this is that if you delete any photos from your phone, then continue backing it up, the backup that contained the deleted photos will be overwritten by one that doesn't, and they will be lost.
To keep your photos, you should always import them to your computer while they are still in your camera roll, as explained here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083.
In the future, if you need to delete data from your phone in order to update it, you might want to delete data that is in your iTunes library so you can sync it back to your phone after the update.  You could, for example, delete all your music, then update your phone and sync it back after the update.